


Practice = Perfect

by Emeka



Series: dumb soft shtuff [5]
Category: Fire Emblem: Shin Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Ken | Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
Genre: M/M, Practice Kissing, implied merric's crush on elice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 01:42:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21789415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emeka/pseuds/Emeka
Summary: Their last private exchange before Merric leaves to study.
Relationships: Marth/Merric (Fire Emblem)
Series: dumb soft shtuff [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1394320
Comments: 8
Kudos: 17





	Practice = Perfect

The sun is shining on another spring day, over the gardens of Altea's castle. Marth has wandered away from the watchful eye of his parents and elder sister to follow his best and boyhood friend Merric, their own picnic supplies in hand. It isn't the sort of thing he'd usually do, but Merric is leaving soon to study in Khadein so he has been agreeable to his whims lately.

"Here looks good," Merric says in a quiet, confiding voice, coming to a stop in a cluster of foreign roses.

They set up together, rolling out the blanket and placing the baskets just so. It is a nice little spot. The smell here isn't so overwhelmingly floral and it affords a view of the rest of the grounds, flowerbeds beyond just roses in oranges and purples, and hedges neatly trimmed in squares and animals he has never seen in person. A breeze carries Elice's laughter to them.

Nice as it is, he feels a bit gloomy looking over at it. Even his food is missing something. Khadein looks so far away in his books.

Merric is being quiet too. And so, despite the occasion that would on any other day be exciting by a child’s standard of forbidden, is just tense and uncomfortable.

“Before I go,” Merric says, wiping sandwich crumbs and sauces from around his mouth, “there was something I wanted to try. With you.” He barely meets his eyes while he says it, increasing Marth’s vague sense of internal alarm.

“What is it, Merric?”

“We’ll be grown when we meet again. And by the time I get back, well...”

He takes his hands in his and stares him in the face, although now he’s looking all pink-faced like he’s coming down with something. “We might have girls we want to marry, right? Especially you, since you’re the prince.”

“Yes...?”

“So we’ll have to know how to woo them, right?”

“Um. I suppose.” While he has always known one day he will need to have a wife and heir, the process of ‘wooing’ isn’t one that’s really come to him yet.

It apparently has had it’s root in Merric’s mind for a while now. He nods seriously. “And when you woo someone you have to k-kiss them.”

“Oh! So... you want to...”

Merric’s grip tightens. This is so sudden. But he supposes the oncoming departure has prompted this, a chance for ‘practice’ Merric can’t be sure of with anyone else. Marth’s heart softens to a puddle. What if Merric doesn’t make any friends at Khadein? What if there’s no one there to help him when he finds a girl he likes, and tries to ‘woo’ her? He’s not sure if anything they learn together right now will still be of help once they’re old enough, but...

He nods, and squeezes his eyes shut. It’s as much as he knows about this sort of thing.

He feels Merric’s breath ghosting across his lips before they meet, just firm enough that his top teeth feel the pressure. Merric squeezes his hands again before releasing and touching skin again on Marth’s cheeks, where his palms curve perfectly over his face. Marth awkwardly folds his own in his lap.

Something wet pokes into his lips, nudging them open. He barely recognizes it as a tongue before opening to it and then it thrusts boldly into the center of his mouth. It’s claustrophobia even without a room; hard to breathe. His eyes squinch tighter in an attempt to block it out and allow Merric free rein. It swirls around all over his mouth, pushing into his tongue, the roof of his mouth, even his teeth, and once a bit too far into the back of his throat, making his chest catch. Breathing comes in bits and pieces, increasing the claustrophobic feeling, until he’s not sure if that isn’t the only reason he’s panting and flushed.

Merric (finally, it feels, like eons ago they started) pulls away, breathing deep but in control, his entire face washed pink now. His thumbs press in next to the corners of Marth’s eyes, moving in a gesture that is half-caress. “Marth—Marth--”

Finally he knows what to do with his hands. He holds Merric’s face in them—his skin is hot, and just as tender to the touch as he remembers in their toddlerhood together. “Is it my turn to woo you now?” Well, some other girl, in the future. But right now there’s just them, so he doesn’t see the harm in conflating the two.

Merric’s eyes half-close, and his mouth wobbles into a funny shape before he nods.

Marth closes his eyes again and turns his head for a slightly better angle so they aren’t quite so nose to nose. One day... but right now this is just Merric he’s kissing, not his future wife but his best friend, who despite showing promise as a mage still gets sick every other month, who comes up with ideas like this, who’s probably just afraid he’s going to be alone.

It’s hotter inside than his skin. The wetness brings it out too. He tries to be considerate but now he sees why Merric nearly suffocated him in his kiss. The desire to get closer and closer continually mounts in him.

It’s one of the reasons he stops when he does. It makes him a little nervous. And his lips are starting to hurt. 

They giggle nervously to themselves, wiping the drool from their mouths. Even that thoughtless gesture makes them ache. He’s trying to think of what to say (“good luck on your future wooing?”) when they hear something besides distant laughter.

“Marth! Merric! Where _ever_ have you gone off to?”

A quick shared glance confirms the need for secrecy. Marth calls back, “Coming, mother!”

**Author's Note:**

> caeda: wow my first kiss with marth was wonderful! it was as though he'd practiced for it: ))
> 
> merric: ...
> 
> marth: ; )
> 
> merric: *commits internal seppuku*


End file.
